Mitigating Burnout in Illinois Human Services Nonprofits: Exploring Leadership Strategies and Human Resource Practices

In this qualitative study, the researcher sought to explore how nonprofit leaders perceive and respond to employee burnout through answering the research question, “What strategies do leaders of human service nonprofits within the Chicago area implement to reduce the burnout risk and mitigate its consequences, and do the servant leadership practices explain the organizational approaches towards the burnout issue?” The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with five leaders of Chicago-based human services nonprofit organizations to explore the prevalence of burnout, challenges that burnout presents to organizational mission, how they address burnout in their specific contexts, and what lingering challenges that threaten burnout may persist. After conducting thematic analysis, four themes emerged: leadership awareness of the burnout problem, servant leadership behaviors, organizational practices to mitigate burnout, and barriers to burnout mitigation. Within each theme, multiple subthemes were discovered and elaborated upon. Analysis of the study’s results revealed that many variables, including organizational size and culture, impacted the feasibility and impact of burnout mitigation; affirmed the importance of servant leadership as a protective factor against burnout; and indicated that measures must be taken at human services nonprofits to proactively anticipate the potential personal and professional challenges that employees may face in order to curb burnout. Future researchers are encouraged to explore the concepts of wellness-oriented leadership, trauma-responsive work environments, and the impact of organizational inclusion practices on burnout.